The papers in this series pertain to the estate of JBS Haldane and his wife, Helen Spurway Haldane. JBS Haldane died in 1964. Following Helen Haldane’s death in 1978, PM Bhargava and his wife, Manorama Bhargava, handled her estate and corresponded extensively with JBS Haldane's sister, Naomi Mitchison, and her grandson, Graeme J Mitchison. Included here are letters, notebooks, handwritten notes, share certificates, financial documents, JBS Haldane’s Last Will and Testament, Helen Haldane’s autopsy, and articles on the Haldanes by PM Bhargava and other researchers. Certain letters also pertain to the dispatch of JBS Haldane’s personal papers to his family in the United Kingdom. These are a combination of originals and facsimiles. This series includes one photographic print and a newspaper article announcing Helen Haldane's death. Note on subseries: The files within the Correspondence subseries have been organized based on the original order of subject-wise arrangement. Letters within each broad subject have been arranged alphabetically and then chronologically, except in special cases. Certain key documents, such as official records, were removed and kept in the Official Records subseries. The share certificates under the Official Records subseries are oversized and have not yet been boxed. The third subseries contains personal papers, possibly compiled by JBS Haldane himself. It includes a notebook, handwritten drafts of his last will and testament, and notes on his surgical history, along with correspondence. These drafts were written by JBS Haldane in November 1962, when he was preparing for an operation in London.

This series contains correspondence between PM Bhargava and members of the Husain family, including MF Husain and Mustafa Husain, publications such as an exhibition catalogue, articles, and exhibition materials pertaining to an exhibition featuring MF Husain’s paintings on key events in the twentieth century, with text by PM Bhargava. The letters discuss a proposed Husain-Bhargava Centre for Art and Science, Husain’s exile and death, and other subjects. The series includes several prints of MF Husain’s artwork and a facsimile of a letter from the artist to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The documents have either been arranged as they were found or arranged chronologically.

This large and significant series contains 272 files pertaining to the Method of Science Exhibition. In 1975, PM Bhargava was invited by the director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Rais Ahmed, to set up an exhibition on the method of science. What followed was a decades-long endeavour to create and disseminate this exhibition and to give it a permanent home.

Although initially set up in Bal Bhavan, New Delhi, the exhibition was locked by Bhargava in 1977 following the general elections and a subsequent regime change both at the central government level and within the NCERT. In 1978, Bhargava discovered that the exhibition had been dismantled without his knowledge. After an investigation and a court dispute regarding this, the exhibition was eventually bought by the Andhra Pradesh government and installed at the Andhra Pradesh State Public Library. It was finally inaugurated on 12 November 1984, just a few days after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. In 1992 the exhibition was shifted to the Birla Science Centre, Hyderabad. In 2000, B Premanand, publisher and editor of ‘The Indian Skeptic’ wanted to bring the exhibition to Kerala but discovered that the material had been neglected and was unusable. Along the way, the exhibition had been documented by the Films Division and released in the late 1980s, and text from the exhibition serialized in the publication ‘Science Today’.

The records in this series are divided into 8 subseries based on the following record types: correspondence, accounts, official documents, exhibition materials, administration, articles writings and printed materials, compilations, and newspapers. Within each subseries, records are arranged thematically or chronologically, paying attention to the significant phases that this exhibition went through:

The initial conception and preparation period

Dismantling

Investigation and court case

Shifting of exhibition to Andhra Pradesh and subsequent inauguration

Shifting of exhibition to Birla Science Centre

Media and outreach initiatives

Involvement of B Premanand and proposed set up in Kerala

This series contains the important publications that Pushpa Mittra Bhargava kept in his collection. The first subseries contains 123 issues of Vijnan Karmee, the official publication of the Association of Scientific Workers of India (ASWI). These issues span a period from May 1949 to October 1968. The monthly magazine addresses scientific subjects and discussions in the field of science in India and includes articles and essays by contributors such as Joliot-Curie, JD Bernal, CV Raman, DD Kosambi, Niels Bohr, and many others.

The magazine also covers issues related to the Association of Scientific Workers of India and the broader scientific community in India. They have been arranged chronologically. Certain issues bear handwritten inscriptions by PM Bhargava.

This series contains a variety of documents, including correspondence, newspaper articles, journal articles, and publications in the form of brochures and booklets. These records span the years 1976 to 2015 and cover topics like religious beliefs, atheism, and secularism. Handwritten notes include notecards with the titles of journal articles written on them. The journal articles cover a range of subjects, including an article by Martin Gardner on David Bohm and Jiddu Krishnamurti. The publications consist largely of booklets published by the Atheist Centre and the Indian Secular Society. One subseries containing miscellaneous records pertains to Kalki Bhagavan, a self-styled Indian godman. One unsigned written statement is a four-paged critique of Satya Sai Baba.

This series contains speeches, correspondence, administrative records, articles and writings, printed materials, newspaper articles, and handwritten notes. PM Bhargava was deeply involved in discussions on scientific temper and critical of religious practices which invoked supernatural powers. Here we find records documenting radio speeches delivered on the subject, administrative records belonging to the Society for the Promotion of Scientific Temper, papers pertaining to the Nehru Centre in Bombay, reports on the Seminar on ‘Scientific Temper and Spiritual Values’ held at the Centre in 1983, correspondence with individuals about superstition and godmen, and Bhargava's own writings. A large number of letters are exchanged between PM Bhargava and Makarand Paranjape, and another set of exchanges is with Meera Ananda. The Statements, Articles, and Writings subseries contains a 1980 signed statement on scientific temper with correspondence around the drafting of the same. It also includes a published article by PM Bhargava.